Mini Mancha Ears

At the basic level LaMancha ears are very simple. If you have a LaMancha and breed it to a Nigerian, you get LaMancha ears. Of course, nothing is quite that simple, including MiniMancha ears.

The LaMancha ear is dominant to the upright ear, but it is an incomplete dominance. If you breed a gopher eared LaMancha to an upright-eared Nigerian, you do not get gopher ears. You get elf ears!

So, a breeder is dealing with three ear types; upright, elf and gopher. Here are some inheritance squares showing the possibilities. Rather than official scientific notations, we will use "n" for the recessive upright ear, and "L" for the dominant LaMancha ear.

The first example is a typical first generation cross with a LaMancha bred to a Nigerian. All of the kids inherit an "L" gene from the LaMancha and a "n" gene from the Nigerian. All the kids will be elf (Ln) eared..

LaMancha to Nigerian	L	L
n	Ln	Ln
n	Ln	Ln

A typical breeding for a second generation using the "Lu" kids from the above breeding will give:

MiniMancha to MiniMancha	L	n
L	LL	Ln
n	Lu	nn

Now we have 25% of the kids with LL or gopher ears, 50% of the kids with elf "Lu" ears and 25% with upright "uu" ears.

Some breeders prefer a second generation going back to a Nigerian. So if we take our original "Lu" first generation and breed her back to a Nigerian we get:

	L	u
n	Ln	nn
n	Ln	nn

So MiniMancha ear inheritance really is simple. Or is it? Remember nothing is really quite that simple. Other genes come into play which determine the shape and length of both gopher and elf ears. They modify the original inheritance. Usually, this does not have much effect for a general breeding program, except for esthetics. After all an inch long elf ear or an inch and a half long elf ear really does not matter as far as the type of ear the next generation will have.

Except occasionally you end up with a very short elf ear that appears to be a gopher, or, less often, a particularly long gopher ear that is mistaken for an elf ear. Which is why you occasionally hear of someone whose goat does not seem to follow the rules.

Finally, there are a few simple general rules for ear inheritance:
1. A MiniMancha that produces a kid with upright ears, no matter what she (or he) is bred to, has elf ears. Even if she looks like she has gopher ears. Genetically she is "Lu".
2. Two MiniManchas with true gopher ears(LL), if bred together, will only produce gopher ears. If they produce anything else, one or both are really elf eared. (Ln)
3. Remember it isn't what you see that counts in the next generation. It is what the genetic code says.

A note from the author: I am not a geneticist. The above information comes from a few basic college biology and genetics classes, observation and interest. I have had LaManchas for nearly 20 years and MiniManchas since 1996. I have studied the ears in both my own herd and in the herds of friends. It is accurate to the best of my knowledge and ability.